


Communication is Important

by sellyoursoulforagoodname



Category: Free!
Genre: Canon Compliant, For the most part, M/M, wonky timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 12:33:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7845133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sellyoursoulforagoodname/pseuds/sellyoursoulforagoodname
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Canon-compliant for the most part, but with a ship twist. Rin and Sei started dating before Rin joined the team; then he joined and things got a little messier. As always I own nothing. Rin/Sei pairing. Follows first season, but I took some timeline liberties and such as is pretty standard. You know how it is. T for language</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Obligatory explanation time. I hate to have short chapters like several of these are going to be, but the breaks made sense to me, so apologies on that front. The timeline is a bit wonky due to my floundering so ignore that, but it follows the plot pretty closely for the most part. Other than that, there isn't much to say so enjoy and tell me whatcha think!

Seijuurou was surprised to see an unfamiliar redhead carrying a box into the room a few doors down. He'd thought people had finished moving in a couple of weeks before. Apparently he was wrong. Curiously, he ventured to the newcomer's doorway and knocked on the frame to announce his presence.

A strange grunt/snarl combination escaped the new kid as he started and dropped the box on his foot. "Damn it!" he hissed, turning angry-looking red eyes to the swim captain. "What?" he snapped.

Sei blinked in surprise at the harsh reaction. "Uh, hey. I just saw that you were moving in and thought I would say hi. Sorry about your, uh, foot."

The apology seemed to snap the younger boy out of his annoyance. He sighed. "No, I'm sorry. It's just been stressful and that hurt. Can we try that again? I'm Rin Matsuoka."

"Seijuurou Mikoshiba," the orange-haired student grinned. "You wanna go get dinner sometime?"

And that got a look of surprise from Rin. "As in . . ."

"A date. You're cute," Seijuurou explained with a shrug. "Thought it was worth asking."

"Are you always this blunt?" Rin asked with a breathy chuckle. His mind was in a state of disbelief that this guy was being so forward. Not that he was complaining, mind. He was quite attractive and obviously was in some kind of sport. _Probably swimming since this_ is _Samezuka,_ Rin thought.

"Pretty much. So do you want to? It's cool to say no; I get it."

"Come back in an hour so I can unpack," Rin smirked.

That cute grin was back on the taller student's face. "Awesome! I'll see you then."

_Maybe this won't be so bad . . ._

Much to Rin's surprise, that date led to another and another until it was safe to say that they were a couple. Due to his . . . particular history that he didn't want to talk about, Rin was a rather private person, so the pair kept the details of their involvement quiet. Not secret, but they didn't go around yelling that they were together. Everyone else just assumed that the enthusiastic captain had simply become good friends with the moodier teen. To Rin, The taste of his failure in Australia was still foul on his tongue, but the cheerful boy—who Rin discovered wasn't just _on_ the swim team, he was the _captain_ —helped keep his mind off of it. Until he heard that the old swim club was going to be torn down, that is.


	2. Chapter 2

Seijuurou was astonished when he heard about the four guys that'd busted into the pool last night after hours for some kind of a race. It was bad enough that they'd managed to rouse the coach with all their commotion, but now one of them was requesting permission to join the swim team. Names were strictly kept out of the question until he arranged to meet the Samezuka student in his office one evening. That little curveball wasn't expected, but the coach apparently saw the race and was impressed by the Samezuka student that'd been involved. In an effort to keep the rest of the school (AKA the principal) from banning the bot from the team because of his trespassing, the name was kept under wraps. Unexpected but understandable if the kid was really as impressive as the coach said, Seijuurou supposed. What he _really_ didn't expect was the familiar, red hair and well-built figure of his boyfriend to be the one that wandered in.

"Matsuoka? What're you doing here? I've got a meeting I'm supposed to be doing, but the guy hasn't shown up yet," he laughed, hoping it didn't sound as forced as it felt. His boyfriend wouldn't be dumb enough to break into a school building after hours for some stupid race, right?

"Sei, it's me you're supposed to be meeting with."

Wrong.

"Rin? _You_ were one of the idiots that broke into my pool?" Seijuurou was in a state of disbelief at the revelation. He didn't even know that Rin could swim let alone at a level that wowed the coach so much that wanted him on the team.

"I'm sorry, Sei," Rin apologized, eyes firmly fixed on his lap. "It was just something I had to do. Those guys and I . . . Fuck it, are you going to let me join or not?"

Mikoshiba leaned back in his chair. By this point, he was more than used to the way Rin tended to snap questions like that out when he was freaking out on the inside. "How do I know you're not terribly out of shape? Have you even swam since middle school?"

"That's why I lived in Austrailia. I was there for swimming."

"And you just gave it up?"

Angry red eyes met Mikoshiba's gold.

"Fine, I'll let you on the team. _If_ you can hold your own against me in a race. What was your best stroke?"

"Fly."

"Good. We'll do free. It wouldn't be fair for one of us to do our best while the other was on their worst or something. This should level the playing field."

* * *

After the seeing the sheer passion in Rin's eyes while they were swimming when their eyes would meet, it was impossible for Sei _not_ to let his boyfriend join the team. And that was how they found themselves weeks later hiding their relationship from the team due to the fact that it would look terrible for the captain to be dating someone on the team. That didn't stop it from being blatantly obvious how worried Mikoshiba was at their first competition when he saw how Rin interacted with the Iwatobi swim team.


	3. Chapter 3

It wasn't until after that little encounter at the hundred meter free that Sei could get close enough to talk to Rin about it. As he approached the block—he may have slightly abusing his position as captain to go over there—he overheard what they were saying.

"I beat you. And that means I never have to swim with you again." Rin's voice was cold as he talked down at the Iwatobi boy that was still in the pool.

After hearing that, Mikoshiba decided to simply clap Rin on the shoulder in congratulations for winning his race and pretending that he hadn't heard what he did just moments before. The next day was when he would realize that he should have talked it out with Rin then. His boyfriend's face when he heard the Iwatobi boys were going to compete in the relay was enough to break Sei's heart.

But as it was, Rin just turned to grin at his captain and boyfriend. The delight in those scarlet eyes and sharp-toothed grin made Sei laugh. "Congratulations, Matsuoka!" he beamed. "You did Samezuka proud."

"Thanks, Sei."

And that was it.

The next day, Mikoshiba could see the hurt and conflict in the other boy's eyes when Ai told him about the relay, but on the redhead just breezed by him without a word. "Matsuoka!" he called, lightly jogging to catch up to Rin. "What was that about? It's just a relay. You weren't quite right around them yesterday, either."

"Nothing," Rin muttered, not even bothering to turn around to look at his captain. "I just didn't know they were going to do the relay."

"Bullshit. That was revenge for something yesterday. You wouldn't have entered a free event when your best stroke is fly otherwise, and I know you rigged your time because I've seen you swim outside of practice when you think no one is watching the clock," Mikoshiba snapped. He grabbed the swimmer's bicep to force him to halt. A quick glance told him that they were now in an abandoned hallway. "What's going on with you, Rin? I knew something about those guys was driving you crazy, but that was ridiculous. _Talk_ to me. That's what I'm here for."

"Just drop it, Mikoshiba! It didn't affect my performance, so it shouldn't matter to you. Lay off, man!" Rin wretched his arm out of Seijuurou's grip and started storming off again.

That comment left Sei shocked enough that he didn't follow again. He was simply left standing there staring after his boyfriend. His eyebrows furrowed in confused anger at Rin's actions. They'd been together for _months_ , and _this_ was how the younger treated him? They'd definitely be having a _talk_ about this when they got back to the dorms, Seijuurou decided. Unfortunately, he didn't come to that decision fast enough to avoid someone seeing him standing in the hall looking pissed off. A gentle hand setting on his shoulder almost caused him to whip around and punch the offender. Fortunately, Sei managed to hault his fist in time.

It turned out to be the easy-going face of one Tachibana Makoto was the one that almost got decked. "Easy, Captain Mikoshiba, it's just me."

"Sorry, Tachibana," Sei sighed. "Was there something you needed?"

"I was going to tell you that our heat for the relay is lining up soon since I saw you come out here, but now I see that something is wrong. Are you alright, Captain Mikoshiba?"

Sei sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in aggravation. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for finding me. Sorry I almost hit you."

"It's fine. I should have known better than to sneak up on you like that when you obviously didn't hear me coming," Makoto shrugged. "No damage done, anyway. If you need anything . . . I know we don't really know each other outside of that one joint practice, but I'm a good listener if you ever need an ear."

Another sigh of frustration at no one in particular from Seijuurou. "Thanks, man. It isn't exactly something I can just talk about so. It's personal."

"Either way, the offer's still open."

"Let's just go get checked in," Sei announced as he unzipped his jacket. Fortunately, he'd warmed up before Nitori told Rin, so he was already dressed under his sweats.

Once on the block, amusingly right next to Makoto, Seijuurou glanced over to the area where the Samezuka students were sitting. Surprisingly, Rin was standing at the front right next to Nitori looking slightly guilty. The hurt and anger were still there when Rin's eyes drifted to the Iwatobi team, though. Mikoshiba had assumed the darker redhead had gone to the bus until the rest of them showed up for the ride home. Apparently, he was wrong. The little gesture brought some of the spark back to Seijuurou's eye right as he started his lap.

A happy laugh escaped him when he saw his rank less than a minute later. The Samezuka team had placed second in their heat, qualifying them for the later competitions. It was only once he was exiting the pool area that he remembered the drama with Rin and realized that the other redhead had probably only watched to see the Iwatobi team race. Naturally, that soured his mood immediately. That resulted in him brushing off the congratulations from his team as politely as he could.

Soon enough, they were on the way back to Samezuka on the bus. Everybody was in their own seat, enjoying the opportunity to relax after the high of competing. Sinjuurou glanced over to Rin's seat and saw that the other swimmer was listening to his headphones and was absolutely not paying attention to anything that was going on around him. Even Nitori seemed to realize how standoffish Rin was being.

Mikoshiba scoffed to himself and stood. They'd just arrived back in front of the dorms, so he figured he'd head back to his own as quickly as possible. His earlier decision to talk to Rin upon returning was to be delayed, he decided. He was too pissed off and confused at the moment to talk to his boyfriend maturely, so nothing good could come of trying to have that conversation tonight. Besides, the adrenaline from his race had finally worn off, leaving him in a state of exhaustion that would likely lead to sleep as soon as he collapsed into bed.

"Get some rest, guys," he sighed before anyone could break off to head to their various dorms. "Great work out there today."

After the various expected responses of "Yes, sir," Sei retreated to his room without another word. It was once he closed his dorm room door behind him that he heard Rin's voice in the hallway.

"Go to bed, Nitori," the shark-like teenager murmured. "I need to talk to the captain about something before I go to bed."

"Can't it wait?" Ai asked, sounding more than a little sleepy.

"No."

That conversation seemed to be ended since Mikoshiba then heard the sound of a door closing nearby. It was only moments before a light knock sounded on the door the captain was currently leaning on.

"Sei?" Rin called quietly.

Reluctantly, the bulkier male opened the door and leaned on it with his arm above his head. "What do you want? It's late, and I need to get some sleep."

"Can we talk?" Rin hesitated. "About what happened today?"

"No."

The answer seemed to surprise Matsuoka since he blinked blankly at his boyfriend for a few seconds. "Sei?"

"No, Matsuoka," Mikoshiba reiterated. "I'm not going to talk about this with you tonight. You screwed up, and it looks like you know it. Even if we weren't anything more than just teammates, I'm still your captain, and you're damned lucky I don't kick you off the team for that level of disrespect. So, no. We're not going to talk about this while I'm exhausted as hell and royally pissed off at my boyfriend."

"Sei, I—"

"Go to bed, Rin, before I change my mind about keeping you on the team."

Even as mad as he was, the dejected expression on Rin's face as he turned to head back to his own room made Mikoshiba sigh.

"Rin," he called quietly, "maybe we can talk about this tomorrow . . . I just . . . I need some time to think about what you said to me and how we fit together since I'm your captain and all."

"Sei, I didn't mean it like that."

"That doesn't change the fact that you said it. Get some sleep. You look terrible. You won, remember? You should be happy about that, at least."

Rin nodded silently. "Yeah . . ."

Sei caught his boyfriend's hand before he could go too far. Using that hand as leverage, Mikoshiba pulled Rin in for a chaste goodnight kiss. "I'm still crazy about you, Matsuoka," Seijuurou admitted, resting his forehead against the other redhead's. "I just need to think about this for a bit."

And with that, they parted. Two doors quietly closed and two redheads fell into their separate beds tiredly.

Sleep found one of them easily since, true to his earlier prediction, exhaustion got the better of Sei's body once he was lying down. Rin, on the other hand, remained awake thinking about the events of the day. Yes, he'd finally beaten Haru, but as a result he might have just paid for that win with his relationship. And that thought was enough to keep him up. And _that_ thought confused him to no end since he'd never had a connection that meant that much to him before. Swimming always came first. Right?


	4. Chapter 4

Fortunately for both of them, the next day was Sunday, so they didn't have to be up early for practice or school. Because of this, Seijuurou ended up spending the morning lying on his back staring up at the ceiling while thinking over his relationship with Rin. It was there that he stayed until a quiet knock sounded on the door once more.

"It's open!" he called, happy to hear that the conflict he was feeling internally didn't show in his voice.

Slowly, the door opened to reveal a downtrodden-looking Rin. "Can we talk now?"

"Fine. I was just trying to decide where to go from here." Seijuurou patted the bed next to him as he sat up.

Rin took the offered seat without question, but didn't raise his gaze to look at the Mikoshiba. "I'm sorry about what I said yesterday . . . I was hurt and pissed off and I had no right to treat you that way. You didn't deserve that."

The apology alone took some of the weight off of Seijuurou's shoulders since it sounded so genuine. "You're forgiven for that much, Rin, but we _have_ to talk about how we're going to move forward. We can't just keep this weird balance where you just yell at me as your captain, because it hurts either way. I'm still your boyfriend, after all, despite what the other guys might think."'

"What do you want to do then?"

"I want you to not fucking yell at me when I'm trying to help for one," Mikoshiba stated. "You shouldn't be doing that to your captain _or_ your boyfriend."

"I know . . . Those guys and I just have a lot of history."

"Then _tell_ me, Rin," Sei pleaded.

Rin squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. "I can't. Can you just break up with me already or whatever you're going to do please?"

Seijuurou's eyebrows furrowed as he leaned forward to kiss Rin for just a second. "I'm not going to break up with you. Not unless you want me to, anyway." He sighed and looked at his hands in his lap. "I was going to suggest that you just treat me like your _friend_ in practice rather than your boss. I still want respect, but I'm not going to be an ass about it."

"Really?" Rin asked with surprised, wide eyes.

Sei chuckled. "Yeah. And I'm not going to make you tell me what's going on with those guys, but don't do that to me again. Okay?"

Rin's response was to tackle his boyfriend back onto the bed in a hug.

And all seemed to be well.

That is, until Rin started training to participate in Samezuka's relay and, therefore, getting obsessed with beating the Iwatobi team again. After talking with Ai about it and learning literally nothing, Sei found himself staring down the barrel of an obvious, but hard decision to make.


	5. Chapter 5

Rin was surprised when he returned from his conversation with Rei and Nitori told him that Mikoshiba had been looking for him. When he headed out to answer to the captain, Matsuoka was surprised when he wasn't gestured inside Sei's room to talk about whatever it was. Seijuurou stepped into the hallway to discuss whatever it was. Wordlessly, he handed Rin a packet of paper that was obviously the lineup for the next day's events.

Rin's eyes widened when he saw the names listed for Samezuka's swim team. "What is this?"

"Tomorrow's roster for the relay. What else would it be?"

"I _see_ that. Why am I not on it?"

Sei straightened from his previous positon from leaning against the wall. "Because I have responsibilities. As captain, it's my job to make sure our best swimmers get to compete, and right now you're not one of them. You've barely paid any attention to the other members of our relay team. You've obviously been too focused on something else."

"Sei, please—"

" _No_ , Rin. Until you get out of your head or whatever else is going on, I can't do anything about this." Mikoshiba's voice dropped to prevent anyone outside of them hearing. "Boyfriend or not, I can't do anything about this. I'm sorry. Believe me when I say I didn't want to."

The captain's heart broke for his boyfriend when he saw the look on Rin's face. This time the one that caused Rin this much pain was himself, and he felt incredibly guilty about it. However, Rin had been so unfocused on his own team during practice that the overall time was suffering and would have rendered them all but useless in the actual competition.

Rin's longer hair fell in front of his face as he stared at the floor. "Whatever," was his only response before storming away.

Seijuurou sighed and ran his hand through his own, slightly-damp hair. "Fuck," he muttered.


	6. Chapter 6

The next day, he didn't see or hear from Rin at all until he saw him on the block for his 100 meter free. Again, guilt stabbed him in the gut when he witnessed how terribly Rin performed likely because of the news that he wouldn't be swimming in the relay. He could only watch those events unfold with his jaw clenched. It took all he had not to run down there to help him out of the pool when he struggled to do so alone.

Mikoshiba was sure the other redhead had retreated back to the bus after that race, so his shock was considerable when he spotted Rin on the block to compete as Iwatobi's member for the butterfly leg of the relay. "The bastard's lost his mind!" he snarled almost to himself as Nitori reacted in similar surprise next to him. The animalistic quality of that shout seemed to surprise Ai since the silver-haired first year flinched away from him slightly.

His tune quickly changed, however, when he saw how well Rin was performing. As well as he'd seen his boyfriend swim in the past, this was something else entirely. "Look at him go . . ." he breathed in awe.

After the race was over and Iwatobi clearly won, Seijuurou watched the four interact. Rin looked legitimately happy for once. In all the times he'd seen the younger swimmer laugh, it'd never been that carefree. It'd been close, but never _quite_ the same. That was enough to make Mikoshiba's heart soar. Before Ai could even turn to comment to his captain about the amazing scene they'd just witnessed, Seijuurou was bolting down the stairs to meet up with the group.

He caught them in a rather empty hallway. They'd all put their jackets back on, leaving them in the same thing that Mikoshiba was wearing (swimsuit and jacket with no shirt), and Rin had his usual post-swim towel just sitting on his head. "Rin!" he called as he jogged towards them.

Matsuoka turned around with a look that appeared to be vaguely fearful. To his surprise, he was greeted by Seijuurou—who was obviously in boyfriend mode rather than Captain mode—pulling him close via a hand on the back of his head and one resting on his shoulder. The taller male could only grin at Rin as their foreheads rested against one another. Rin's hand rested on Seijuurou's chest, clenched ever-so-slightly in the fabric of the jacket that covered the tanned skin.

"Sei . . ." he breathed out his surprise.

" _That_ was a great race!" Seijuurou laughed, his smile so wide that his eyes squinted shut.

The Iwatobi team just watched the two, shocked. Mako and Nagisa looked at each other with wide eyes over Haru's head. Haru looked as disinterested as always, and Rei was just standing there with his mouth hanging open like a fish. Mako was amused to notice the blush that was forming on Rin's cheeks.

"You're not . . . mad at me?" Rin asked, looking up into Seijuurou's bright yellow eyes.

"We'll talk about that later. Right now, my boyfriend just swam an amazing race, and I wanted to congratulate him."

"Boyfriend?" Nagisa echoed, calling attention to the fact that the couple did in fact have onlookers.

Mikoshiba simply turned to smile at the other team. "Yep!" he beamed. "We kept it quiet since it wouldn't exactly look good since I'm his captain and all, but yeah."

Rin took that as an invitation to throw his arms around Sei and kiss him soundly. That was a gesture that Sei answered with equal vigor. In that time, Ai jogged into the hallway and froze at what he saw.

"Captain?" he called quietly. "Matsuoka?" After all, their two profiles were pretty hard to mistake.

The two separated quickly, jumping apart in surprise at their teammate's familiar voice.

"Nitori!" Rin gasped, hurriedly wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. It was one thing for his best friends—despite everything that'd happened in the last few months, that's exactly what they still were—to know about the morally questionable relationship between the captain and his teammate. It was another for a member of said team to know. It takes a couple seconds for Rin to be able to school his expression into his usual scowl.

Behind Sei and Rin, the Iwatobi team were trying their hardest not to laugh at Rin's reaction. They'd never seen their friend look that embarrassed about anything.

Mikoshiba cleared his throat. "Yes, Nitori?"

"I _knew_ it!" Ai shouted abruptly, a happy grin on his face.

That earned a moment of Seijuurou blinking in surprise. "Huh?"

"I'm sorry, Captain," Ai laughed as he tried to cover his mouth to disguise it. "You and Matsuoka aren't as subtle as you think. The guys have been making bets about when you two would hook up."

Seijuurou could only blink while Rin let out a strangled, " _What?"_

"Yeah. It was obvious when you check out Captain Mikoshiba when he's getting out of the pool. And, Captain, no one that's just a person's superior cares that much about what his teammate is going through. Especially not enough that that subordinate would go to his room in the middle of the night. So how long have you two been together?"

Sei coughed. "Since he came to Samezuka," he admitted with a blush that almost matched his hair. "We met when he moved in."

"Really?!" Nagisa exclaimed. "That's _awesome!_ Congratulations!"

Finally, Rin seemed to recover from everyone he cared about—except Gou, thank God—finding out about his formerly secret relationship. "Okay, enough. Yes, we're together. Yes, it's been for a while. That's the end of it."

The Iwatobi team just shrugged.

"Okay," Makoto agreed. "We were thinking about having a cookout tomorrow night to celebrate. Do you guys want to come? Ai, you're welcome too."

"Sure!" Mikoshiba grinned.


	7. Chapter 7

It was a couple hours later after the impromptu relay team was officially reprimanded and disqualified that Rin found himself apologizing to his Captain rather than his boyfriend about messing up the race. That led to Ai freaking out when Rin apologized to him and Rin genuinely thinking he'd be kicked off the team for his admittedly stupid actions.

"As long as you swim for us like you did for your buddies back there, we're good." Seijuurou's face broke out into a wide grin.

"Really?' Rin breathed.

Mikoshiba barked a few orders to his vice-captain before the team set off towards the bus. The fact that Rin lingered back to walk beside him didn't go unnoticed by either the team or Seijuurou. Casually, Sei wrapped an arm around his boyfriend's shoulders. "You okay?" he asked quietly.

Rin paused his nervous gnawing on his bottom lip with his shark-like teeth for a second. "I really expected you to kick me off the team. I thought I didn't get any more chances."

Sei sighed and placed a kiss to his boyfriend's temple. "I saw something in your swimming today that made me decide to keep you on the team. There was a fire there that hasn't been there since you first joined up. You've got amazing talent, and you're not letting it go to waste again. It's my job to promote our best swimmers. You're one of them, if not the best we've got. I've got no intention of letting you get away."

The younger was quiet for a couple seconds. "Thanks."

Sei grinned. "It doesn't hurt that I'm crazy about you."

And there was the slap to his chest that signified Rin's usual attitude returning. "Fucking dork."


End file.
